Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a foldable display apparatus, and more particularly, to a foldable display apparatus for minimizing stress applied to a bending area of a display panel.
Discussion of the Related Art
A display apparatus using a flat display panel, such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus, a plasma display apparatus, an organic light emitting display apparatus, an electrophoretic display apparatus, or an electro-wetting display apparatus, is generally applied to notebook computers, portable electronic devices, televisions (TVs), and monitors.
Recently, even in portable electronic devices, the demand for a large screen is increasing, and thus, an apparatus including a display unit displaying a large screen is being developed and commercialized by connecting a flat display panel. In particular, foldable display apparatuses using the merits of a flexible display panel which is bendable or foldable provide portable convenience and include a display unit which displays a large screen, and thus are attracting much attention as next-generation technology of the display field. The foldable display apparatus may be applied to various fields such as TVs and monitors, in addition to portable electronic devices such as mobile communication terminals, electronic notes, e-books, portable multimedia players (PMPs), navigation devices, ultra mobile personal computers (PCs), mobile phones, smartphones, tablet PCs.
Examples of the foldable display apparatuses may include a foldable display apparatus disclosed in Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2014-0015881 (hereinafter referred to as a prior art reference). The foldable display apparatus disclosed in the prior art reference unfolds a flexible display panel with respect to a hinge, thereby providing a large screen.
However, in the prior art reference, a crack occurs in a bending area of the flexible display panel due to a stress which is applied when the flexible display panel is repeatedly folded and unfolded with respect to the hinge, and for this reason, reliability of the flexible display panel of a display unit is reduced. That is, in the prior art reference, since one area and the other area of the flexible display panel is fully folded with respect to the bending area so as to contact each other, a crack easily occurs in the bending area of the flexible display panel.